You are at a higher risk of developing type 2 diabetes if your spouse has it.

According to a new research led by an Indian-origin scientist at the McGill University Health Centre (MUHC) in Montreal, Canada, living together under one roof could also imply sharing diabetes.

"We found a 26 percent increase in the risk of developing type 2 diabetes if your spouse also has type 2 diabetes," says senior author Kaberi Dasgupta, an associate professor of medicine at McGill University.

"This may be a platform to assist clinicians to develop strategies to involve both partners. Changing health behaviour is challenging and if you have the collaboration of your partner it's likely to be easier," she added.

Dasgupta's team wanted to see if risk behaviours like poor eating habits and low physical activity could be shared within a household, said the study published in the journal BMC Medicine.

They analysed results from six selected studies that were conducted in different parts of the world and looked at key outcomes such as age, socio-economic status and the way in which diabetes was diagnosed in over 75,000 couples.

Most of the studies relied on health records which may not always accurately record diabetes.

Those that used direct blood testing suggested that diabetes risk doubles if your partner has diabetes. A strong correlation with pre-diabetes risk was also found.

"When we look at the health history of patients, we often ask about family history. Our results suggest spousal history may be another factor we should take in consideration," said Dasgupta.

According to Dasgupta, spousal diabetes is also a potential tool for early diabetes detection.

"The results suggest that diabetes diagnosis in one spouse may warrant increased surveillance in the other," stressed Dasgupta.

Moreover, it has been observed that men are less likely than women to undergo regular medical evaluation after childhood and that can result in delayed diabetes detection.

As a result, men living with a spouse with diabetes history may particularly benefit from being followed more closely, the study concluded.

Women, who include foods rich in fatty acids in their diet, can look forward to a nimble mind even in old age, according to a new study.

Researchers looked into the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in blood of older women and found that people with higher levels of the omega-3 fatty acids may have larger brain volumes in old age equivalent to preserving one to two years of brain health.

Shrinking brain volume is a sign of Alzheimer's disease as well as normal ageing.

James Pottala, an assistant professor at the University of South Dakota Sanford School of Medicine in Sioux Falls and chief statistician for the Health Diagnostic Laboratory in Richmond, Virginia, and his colleagues analyzed data from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study to see whether omega-3s were associated with brain shrinkage in general, and in specific brain regions involved in memory and other cognitive processes.

The data covered 1,111 women who were, on an average, 70 years old and had no signs of dementia at the beginning of the study. At that time, the amount of the omega-3 fatty acids eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) in their red blood cells was measured.

DHA accounts for 30 percent to 40 percent of the fatty acids found in brain cell membranes, and it's especially concentrated near the synapses where the cells communicate with one another, according to the study published in the journal Neurology.

The level of Red blood cells of the omega-3s is good indicators of how much a person has consumed, the researchers add.

The researchers used an omega-3 index to describe the fatty acid levels seen among women in the study and to divide them into four groups: women with the highest levels had an average index reading of around 7.5 percent, while women with the lowest levels had an average of 3.4 percent.

Eight years after the women's blood was tested, they underwent MRIs to measure the volume of gray matter and white matter in their brains.

The researchers found that women with the highest EPA and DHA blood levels at the study's outset had brains that were about two cubic centimeters larger overall than women with the lowest levels.

In addition, the hippocampus, a brain region critical to forming and storing memories, was 2.7 percent larger in women who had fatty acid levels twice as high as the average.

Of 13 specific brain regions the researchers looked at, the hippocampus was the only one where they saw a significant difference.

The analysis adjusted for other factors that could influence the women's brain size, including education, age, other health conditions, smoking and exercise.

"These higher levels of fatty acids can be achieved through diet and the use of supplements, and the results suggest that the effect on brain volume is the equivalent of delaying the normal loss of brain cells that comes with ageing by one to two years," said Pottala.

Schizophrenia is caused by a large number of rare genetic mutations rather than a few, easily-identifiable faulty genes, said scientists who compiled the world's largest database on the debilitating disorder.

Two studies published Wednesday in the journal Nature said the genetic triggers for the mental illness that affects about one in 100 people were far more complex than previously thought.

Gathering data from nearly 7,000 people in Bulgaria and Sweden, two teams of scientists said genes implicated in schizophrenia worked in clusters to disrupt specific proteins.

They tend to be part of gene networks that govern signalling between brain cells, or deal with learning and memory, the researchers said.

The "finding is sobering but also revealing: it suggests that many genes underlie risk for schizophrenia and so any two patients are unlikely to share the same profile of risk genes," said Shaun Purcell of the Broad Institute in Massachusetts.

"These types of studies should provide a firm base from which we can chart a course toward the ultimate goal of subtyping patients and offering a more personalised treatment path than the one-size-fits-all approach currently used."

One of the studies compared the genetic sequences of 2,500 schizophrenia patients in Sweden with the same number of healthy individuals, looking for sites and patterns of mutations.

The other compared the gene sequences of more than 600 sufferers and their parents in

"Both studies yielded further evidence that the disorder arises from the combined effects of many genes -- a condition known as 'polygenicity'," said a Broad Institute statement.

"The studies also suggest that genetic alterations tended to cluster in a few networks of functionally-related genes."

Schizophrenia is a chronic, often debilitating illness, afflicting about 2.4 million adults in the United States alone.

Symptoms include hallucinations, delusions and paranoia.

Suffering from epilepsy doesn't mean you can't enjoy your life and live happily. You may have epilepsy, but if have a good health and good mental powers, and with proper measures and necessary precautions, you have the ability to live independently well into adulthood.

However, it is important to note that all the suggested tips may not be equally right or helpful for every person. Some tips may not be applicable to you although it is relevant to others.

For example, people who have frequent seizures without warning may need to take extra precautions and care than those who get a useful warning sign of seizures. Here are some useful safety tips for epilepsy patients.



-Try to find a place or a house that does not have stairs. This will help avoid any accidental falls or injuries caused by a seizure.

-Buy electric and home appliance devices that have automatic shut-off switches.

-Place padding around table corners or any furniture that has sharp areas to prevent hitting them during seizure.

-Family members should never leave a person who has uncontrolled seizures alone in the room, especially when there is a fire in the fireplace.

-Always have a plan of action ready so that you can alert your family, friends or neighbours even when you are alone at home.

-Try to cook in a microwave rather than a stove for safety purpose.

-Use plastic utensils and containers.

-Try to use precut meat so that you not not require using a knife.

-In the bathroom, make sure that the doors are not locked from inside, someone from outside should always be able to get in, if you need help.

-All electrical appliances should be kept away from the sink or bathtub.

-Always keep the water heater temperature low to prevent burning if a seizure should occur.

-Plan your activities when seizures are less likely to occur, if seizures usually occur at a certain time.

-While exercising, avoid extreme heat and keep yourself hydrated by taking lots of water to reduce seizure risks.

-Before starting any new fitness program, make sure you talk to your doctor/neurologist.

Epilepsy is a neurological condition that affects the nervous system. It is also known as a seizure disorder. A person is considered to have epilepsy when he/she has two or more unprovoked seizures.

Sleeping well may prevent prostate cancer in men, a new study has claimed.

Men with higher levels of melatonin, a hormone involved in the sleep-wake cycle, had a 75 percent reduced risk for developing advanced prostate cancer compared with men who had lower levels of melatonin, researchers found.

Melatonin is produced exclusively at night in the dark and is an important output of the circadian rhythm.

"Sleep loss and other factors can influence the amount of melatonin secretion or block it altogether, and health problems associated with low melatonin, disrupted sleep, and/or disruption of the circadian rhythm are broad, including a potential risk factor for cancer," said Sarah C Markt, doctoral candidate in the Department of Epidemiology at Harvard School of Public Health in Boston.

"We found that men who had higher levels of melatonin had a 75 percent reduced risk for developing advanced prostate cancer compared with men who had lower levels of melatonin," Markt said.

"Our results require replication, but support the public health implication of the importance of maintaining a stable light-dark and sleep-wake cycle.

"Because melatonin levels are potentially modifiable, further studies of melatonin and prostate cancer risk and progression are warranted," added Markt.

To investigate the association between urine levels of the main breakdown product of melatonin, 6-sulfatoxymelatonin, and risk of prostate cancer, Markt and colleagues conducted a case-cohort study of 928 Icelandic men from the AGES-Reykjavik cohort between 2002 and 2009.

They collected first morning void urine samples at recruitment, and asked the participants to answer a questionnaire about sleep patterns.

The researchers found that one in seven men reported problems falling asleep, one in five men reported problems staying asleep, and almost one in three reported taking sleeping medications.

The median value of 6-sulfatoxymelatonin in the study participants was 17.14 nanogrammes per millilitre of urine.

Men who reported taking medications for sleep, problems falling asleep, and problems staying asleep had significantly lower 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels compared with men without sleep problems, according to Markt.

Of the study participants, 111 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, including 24 with advanced disease.

The researchers found that men whose 6-sulfatoxymelatonin levels were higher than the median value had a 75 per cent decreased risk for advanced prostate cancer.

A 31 per cent decreased risk for prostate cancer overall was observed as well, but this finding was not statistically significant.

The study was presented at a meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research.